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Outdoor Residential Waste Burning -- Public Health Information

This page last reviewed July 25, 2014

Do you know the dangers from burning household waste near your home?
Today's trash contains plastics, metals, and synthetic materials that
create dangerous chemicals when burned. These chemicals include
dioxins, benzene, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), and other compounds
that are known to cause respiratory ailments, stress human immune
systems, and are potentially carcinogenic.

Smoke and toxic emissions from burning
residential waste stay close to the ground, potentially affecting the
health of your family and neighbors. Children are generally more
susceptible than adults to adverse health impacts from these air
toxics. The toxics can be inhaled in the air or eaten in the form of
fine particles that deposit on food or are absorbed into plants through
the soil. Ultimately, these chemicals accumulate in our bodies.

The United States Environmental
Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) has identified residential waste burning
as a major source of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and
dibenzofurans (collectively referred to as dioxins). Dioxins
in particular are the most potent carcinogens identified to date by the
ARB as toxic air contaminants (TACs). In addition to dioxins,
many other toxic air contaminants are generated from residential waste
burning, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs),
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), benzene, and 1,3-butadiene.
These toxic air contaminants may result in substantial health impacts,
ranging from headaches, dizziness, rapid heartbeat, and liver and
kidney damage, to cancer. Other air pollutants found in smoke
produced from residential waste burning include carbon dioxide, oxides
of nitrogen, and particulate matter. Most of the particulate
matter emitted from residential waste burning is small enough to be
inhaled and can be especially harmful to people with existing
respiratory illness, the aged, and the very young. Exposure
to such particles may worsen existing disease conditions and can
produce symptoms ranging from breathing difficulties to increased
respiratory infection and even death.